On the melting of zirconium alloys from scraps using electron beam and induction furnaces

Abstract

The pressurized water reactor (PWR) employs UO2pellets as nuclear fuel, which are packedin zirconium alloy tubes called nuclear fuel cladding. In the manufacture of the nuclearfuel, machining scraps are generated which are not easily discarded as scraps because ofits high cost. These zirconium nuclear alloys are very costly and are not produced in Brazil.In this work, novel methods to recycle Zircaloy scraps using vacuum induction melting andelectron beam furnaces were used to obtain ingots. The cast ingots were subjected to ther-mal treatments and then chemically analyzed, followed by microstructural characterization,mechanical properties evaluation, and X-ray diffraction. The results indicated the feasibilityof the processes for obtaining alloys for application in the nuclear area, chemical industryor materials for biological applications such as dental prostheses.